Welcome to my first blog!

Ok, so this is my very first ever blog so please bear with me! I first thought about blogging 2/3 years ago, however life took over and I didn’t get any further than writing a list about everything I wanted to share….I do love a list….however it doesn’t usually take this long to implement!

I’ve now even exceeded my own expectations and have set up what I have called ‘No Magic Wand UK’. This didn’t come without it’s difficulties for a technophobe like me! I’d never even heard of domains, hosts, themes, back end, front end, SSL’s etc, let alone know where to start with navigating and implementing it all.

However, I decided to set up ‘No Magic Wand UK’ as a platform to share my family’s experience and in particular, how living with a child with Autism (ASD), Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and additional mental health conditions impacts every aspect of day-to-day life. I deliberately chose to name it ‘No Magic Wand UK’, because, in my experience, there is, unfortunately, no magic wand. There are no ‘quick fix’ answers or solutions when it comes to parenting a child with complex needs and there certainly is no magical ‘cure’ (which I think is a wonderful term to use when you have others trying to ‘fix’ your child) for the conditions she has been diagnosed with.

I am by no means an ASD/PDA or mental health professional or expert, however I am a mum who has lived and continues to live with the effects of these conditions on my youngest daughter and the impact this has on everyone involved in our lives. There have been many highs but also many lows. There have been times where I’ve not known where to turn, with many a brick wall and felt so alone.

It’s been and continues to be a very long rocky road, from pre-diagnosis to where we find ourselves today (5/6 years on). I thought if by sharing our journey (warts and all), it may help others who are living a similar journey and if it helps just one other family to not feel so isolated or can find something resonates with them, then it will be worthwhile. Maybe, this may be you or someone you know?

It’s important to mention that I also have two older girls, who are now both adults and it’s sometimes hard to remember what ‘normal’ (controversial term but I’m sure everyone can relate) family life felt like. My older two are ‘neurotypical’, this is the posh word for children/young people who do ‘not have any difficulties/additional needs’ and is a term that is widely used in the Autism community. So I had experienced ‘normal’ parenting for 10 years before my youngest cherub came along and opened my eyes to this new special world which meant everything I had learnt to date had to go straight out of the window! Flipping ‘normal’ parenting on it’s head and then some……

4 Comments

JustineMarch 5, 2019 / 7:16 pm

Well done my darling friend I’m so so proud of you for doing this and I know it’s been so difficult for you but you’ve done it and are up and running 😍 good luck with it. I shall be avidly reading your blogs and hope it helps not only other people but also you guys. Again well done and I love you los xxxx